On arrival at Rainbow Beach, unsure whether it was good or bad luck, we were checked into the same room as Kyle and Liam, and just ended up spending the evening having dinner and playing uno, as were all pretty tired.

Next morning it was gone midday by the time we had actually got up, showered and ready and Katie and i had our briefing for Fraser Island trip at 2pm. During the course of the briefing we watched a safety video, went through what would happen the following day and food etc, and then we were put into our groups. There were two groups of 9 and one group of 6 with only us two and two guys at the briefing being English. We were group 2 and consisted of myself and Katie, a German girl Luisa and 5 Swedish who were all travelling together; Tove, Toby, Ho-man, Bahar and Linda. We were also told that another guy would be arriving at the hostel that evening and so would be joining us in the morning. Having not really bonded with any of our group at the briefing, we were slightly worried about the fact that they were mainly all travelling together and that myself and Katie, along with Tove were the only drivers, and i did not even know if i was going to be able to drive because of my ankle.

8am the next morning and we all met up, sorted out our food and alcohol boxes and loaded up the 4x4s before heading to the mechanics for safety information and contract signing etc. It was very daunting signing to say that we understood all about the 4WD and 2WD, and our itinerary for the 3 days and also agreeing to be in charge of the vehicle as drivers. Anyway, around 12pm we drive onto the ferry with Tove agreeing to do the first leg of the driving.

Arriving on Fraser Island was amazing! One massive great big sand island which is 79km in length! Set in 4WD we made our way along the extremely bumpy inland road following the other two groups, as we all wanted to stick together for the duration. First stop after about 1hour was Eurong village, the only shop on the island! After toilet stops and stretch of the legs, it was on to lake mackenzie, along abosolutely mental roads! madness is the only way to describe them....they're not even roads, just tracks! After lunch by the car park, we wandered down to the lake............wow..........don't know what else to say...........my exact words were 'wow look at that water!' It was absolutely incredible. A massive fresh water lake with bright turquoise water and white sand.....gorgeous.........has to be seen to be believed.

After an hour or so, we realised we needed to get going to Central Station campsite as needed to be there and set up before sundown. Katie drove this section, very nervous at first, she loved every second, and did really well on the dodgy tracks. We all set up camp in the same pitch, all 8 tents, and cooked our dinner of burgers and played games together.

Up bright and early, first stop was back and Eurong, for provisions from the shop. I did the driving today, and found it a lot easier than expected with my ankle as changing gear was not a common necessity. Loved it, loved it, loved it actually, and so would have regretted it if i had not given it a go. Once at Eurong, when parking up we found that our handbrake was not working, so after slight panic, we got in touch with the mechanic and drove two mintues up the beach (yes you drive on the beach!) to an extremely eccentric mechanic who, (after a lecture on never relying on handbrake!) tightened the cable for us.

Disaster averted, we made our way on the beach to the car park for Lake Wabby. A 30 mintue walk from the car park to the lake, through the rainforest and across and sandblow. Although, with a limp, hobbling along took me an hour and 10 minutes each way. Katie and one of the guys from the car of 6, Alan, walked the whole way there and back with me which was appreciated sooooo much. And actually arriving first on the sandblow (amazing) and then at Lake wabby itself, what a sense of acheivement! As silly as it sounds, i was so proud of myself. My first weekend and first proper walk without my crutches!

That night we camped right on the beach was was absolutely awesome. Two downfalls though; one the dingoes, saw quite a few of them that night, although lucky for us we had a lot of guys who loved chasing them away, so they really weren't that much of a problem. Second downfall to beach camping....no toilet. Squatting was a necessity, and having never got the hang of this even when i was little, also with the added issue of not being able to squat properly due to my ankle, Tove, kindly gave me a lesson, and i managed it once and swore that i would never do it again!hahaha!

An evening of stir-fry, card games, drinking games, chatting and larking about on the beach and it was to bed in our tents for our final night under the stars (i have to admit this part i was pleased about..........those tents were sooooo hot and clearly not big enough for 3 people!). Pancakes were on the menu for breakfast, and i made awesome pancakes, even if i do say so myself. They were proper pancakes, not scrambled pancakes as everyone else described theirs!lol! So good, people from other groups even wanted them!lol!

First stop on our final day was Indian Head, unfortunately i couldn't make it up to the head itself as involved climbing but i enjoyed waiting on the beach at the bottom whilst the others went up. Maheni shipwreck was our next stop. A ship that got caught in a cyclone and washed up on shore in 1935, (i think that's the right date anyway!). After a quick photo session here, it was time to make our way to our final stop which was Eli Creek. A fresh water creek right on the beach, it was soooo lovely just to have a quick 15minutes paddling and chatting, before making our way back for the 2pm ferry back to Rainbow Beach.

After issues with getting the 4x4 back in 2WD, we dropped everything at the hostel and took the jeep back. When checking back into the hostel we found that we had been put in a room with Mike and Alan, the two English guys from the group of 6 on Fraser Island. We had got on well with them so we pleased to still be with them. After much needed showers, which involved washing at least twice to get rid of all of the sand. The four of us met up with Lynn again (yay), who had just arrived at Rainbow Beach, and spent the evening together, having dinner and playing drinking games. Despite the fact that next morning we had to be up at 7am for an 8am bus, we had a brilliant night, which was very funny (Lynn drunk and snorting with laughter and Mike falling asleep midgiggles!) and ended very late!